Befriended
by nyakattia
Summary: A phone call brings Danny back to his childhood home, where he learns that everything is most definitely not alright. He and Lindsay finally talk. DL, HOC. Forth in the Climb This Mountain series. Warning! Mentions of rape, murder and domestic violence.
1. Chapter 1

_this is going to break me clean in two/ this is going to bring me close to you/…this is going to bring me clarity/ this'll take the heart right out of me_

-The Fray, _She is_

It was barely February and already New York had shed the glow of a New Year. As the temperature continued to drop, its citizens were back to work, were back to screaming abuse at each other on the roads, were back to committing murder and dumping the bodies in back alleyways.

With Mac and Hawkes on a case in the suburbs and Lindsay processing evidence in the lab, it was Stella and Danny who met Flack to process the scene. Underneath a snow laden sky a young woman was lying in the trash behind a popular local pizzeria.

"We got an ID on the vic?" Danny asked, pulling the strap of his camera over his shoulders.

Flack consulted his notebook. "Yeah, her purse was still in her bag." He indicated where it lay against the brick wall near the victims' feet. Danny snapped off a few shots before moving closer to examine it. "Krista Mathers, 28. She lives nearby."

"Wouldn't think so by her clothes," Stella commented, pulling back the jacket to check the inner lining. "Clothes are well worn- the labels are faded- but they weren't cheap."

"I got a shoe over here," Danny called, moving on to take pictures of the next object. It lay between the body and a small set of concrete stairs leading to the back door of the pizzeria.

"Heal is broken. There's somethin' around the edges. Looks like glue- maybe home repairs." He looked up at where Stella was still crouched over the body, Flack standing nearby. "Stell, am I right in thinkin' the shoes don't match the rest of the ensemble?" He pronounced the word in this think accent, 'on-somb'.

She smiled in response to his smirk, and moved down the body to check the shoe that remained on it's left foot. Using one gloved hand she inspected it closely. "I agree. So old expensive clothes and cheap shoes. What does that tell us?"

Flack looked up at the area around them. "Got the clothes from a shelter maybe?"

"Or she started out some place better than this," Danny suggested. Setting his kit down on the ground he pulled out some large evidence bags to collect the bag and lone shoe.

Writing the details of the case on the side of a bag, he looked up to see Hawkes duck under the police tape that had cordoned off the ally. A small crowd had gathered to see what was going on and a few uniformed officers were standing guard.

"Hey, thought you were on that shooting in queens."

Hawkes shrugged and walked over to the body. "Husband confessed as soon as Mac started fingerprinting him. Mac sent me out when he heard the forecast."

They all looked to the heavy grey sky and Stella stood to let Hawkes get closer to the body. She gingerly stepped through the rubbish to examine the brick wall as Hawkes took the victim's head in his hands.

"Blunt force trauma to the back of the skull," he informed them, examining the indentation that was the likely COD.

Stella flicked her torch on and examined a section of the wall where a line of bricks jutted out at a sharp angle, just about head hight for the victim. "I have blood and hairs here. Looks like she hit the wall hard."

Hawkes looked up. "I'll check with Sid, but that would probably do it."

Danny gathered the two evidence bags, now correctly labelled, and took them to the lab car he and Stella had driven to the scene. Securing them in the back of the car, and making sure an officer was available to guard it, he walked back into the crime scene, where the others were still grouped around the body.

"…a pretty nasty black eye developing here." Hawkes was saying. "A few hours anti-mortem. Same with the bruises on her forearms."

Stella recognised the bruising pattern. "Someone gabbed her- hard."

"Yeah, looks like it. Maybe whoever did this came back for more."

Danny took a few steps closer to the concrete steps. "So sayin' she came out of the pizzeria, started towards the street. But her shoe breaks."

Stella joined him. "She doesn't stop to fix it- maybe she couldn't. If someone was behind her…"

"He catches up with her- she couldn't've moved fast with only one shoe. And she goes into the wall," Danny suggested. "We need to fingerprint the ally and the pizzeria."

Flack sighed. "I'll tell the owner."

Before he could move away a uniformed officer approached him. "Detective, I have a message for Detective Messer."

Danny looked up at the sound of his name and walked back to the group.

"Where's your phone?" Hawkes asked as he reached them.

Danny patted the area on his belt where his phone was usually clipped and shook his head. "Must've left it in the car. What's the message?" he asked the young woman.

She handed him the notebook where she'd written down the message. After a moment he handed it back to her. "Hey, Hawkes, can I borrow your cell for a minute man?" He looked worried, a frown lines appearing on his forehead.

"Sure." Hawkes unclipped it from his belt and handed it over. Danny moved a few meters away from them to make the call.

Flack raised his eyebrows. "What's that all about?"

"Couldn't be anything with the lab- Mac would have called one of us," Stella replied.

Hawkes turned towards the officer who had given Danny the message. "Hey, Officer Rodriguez." She had retreated back to the police line but at his call returned. He smiled at her briefly, and after a moment she returned it. "What was that message you gave Danny?"

"Just to call Detective Carols at the one-two-two," she replied as Stell and Flack joined them.

"That's Staten Island." Flack informed the others. "His ma still lives out there doesn't she?"

"Yeah," Hawkes replied. "Danny took me there for dinner one time."

Flack turned to the uniformed officer still standing beside them. "Thank you, Officer."

She nodded and turned, making brief eye contact with Hawkes before walking away. Before Flack could comment, Danny was suddenly with them, practically shoving the phone into his friends' hands.

"Here man. Stell, I gotta go. Some sort of- family emergency, you know how my family gets." He smiled like he was making a joke but it looked more like a grimace. His movements mirrored his voice- halting and agitated.

Stella cast a concerned eye over her young friend. Lately he'd been a lot calmer at work, more focused on his tests and on gathering evidence at crime scenes. She had felt a certain sort of maternalistic pride over the change, a lot of which she credited to his growing friendship with Lindsay. They were practically joined at the hip now, although she had yet to see anything that indicated they were in a romantic relationship.

But now that undercurrent of unsettled violence was back in him, and while Danny seemed intent on holding it back Stella wasn't sure he was going to be okay.

"Sure, Danny. If it's family." She smiled reassuringly. "Just remember to drop that evidence off at the lab first."

He nodded and left without saying goodbye to anyone. Flack yelled down the ally as he walked towards the police line. "Hey, Messer, don't forget you and Monroe are coming to the game on Saturday." The only response was a backhanded wave as Danny ducked under the line and disappeared into the crowd.

When Flack turned back Stella had retrieved her own cell phone from her belt. He smiled at her wryly. "What are you up to Detective Bonasera?"

"Just keeping an eye on him," she replied, pressing #5 on speed dial. After waiting a moment, she reacted to someone on the other end of the phone. "Hey, Lindsay, where are you?"

Flack shrugged and looked at Hawkes. "You coming to the game, Hawkes? I got a few more free tickets."

"Saturday?" He asked and Flack nodded. "Yeah, think I'm working the late shift again. Sounds good."

Flack cast an eye over the crowd at the end of the ally. "And maybe you could, you know, invite a friend. I'm sure Officer Rodriguez would be free." He smirked at the look on Hawkes face.

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AN- This is a double first for me- the first multi chaptered story I have ever posted here and the first time I have ever posted the beginning of a story without finishing it first. Don't worry, I know exactly where I'm going, and I won't make you wait too long for an update!


	2. Chapter 2

Lindsay waited for Danny in the locker room, her coat and bag beside her on the bench. Danny had been wearing an official NYPD Crime Lab windbreaker when she saw him leave only a few hours ago, and figured he would have to change before leaving again.

Stella hadn't told Lindsay much on the phone, but she knew enough to be worried. Thankfully she had nearly been off shift anyway, so after finishing up her tests Lindsay had gone to the locker room to get her coat. Now she sat in front of her locker, just a few doors down from Danny's, on the long wooden bench that ran down the centre of the room.

Her eyes traced the letters of his last name where they'd been written on the nameplate. M E S S E R.

She heard him before she saw him, hard footsteps that beat a path down the corridor outside. The door opened behind her and he took a few steps into the room before he noticed she was there. The pattern of his steps halted abruptly. A moment later they resumed and he walked past her to his locker.

She had half expected the door of his locker to slam against the one beside it. She could already tell he was very upset about something- nothing got to Danny like family did and Stella had told her it was a family emergency. But the door bounced with only a small clang off the next locker and Danny stood, bracing his arms on the bottom edge.

He stood very still, but she could sense the torrent of emotion in him, trying to get out. His head was bent forward as if he was carefully studying the bottom shelf of his locker but his neck muscles strained. She listened to him breathing for a while, the sharp intake and slow release of a man desperately trying to get himself under control.

"Stella call you?" he asked quietly, not moving.

"Yes," she replied and said no more.

They stood that way for another minute, Danny staring into his locker but not recognising anything in it, and Lindsay carefully watching him from behind.

She could see even under his sweater the way the muscles in his arms and shoulders bunched and tensed. The same ones she occasionally found herself drooling over as far back as the first week she met him, back when he was nothing more to her then an annoying new colleague, and she was the newbie taking his friends place, ready to be initiated with a few sly jokes.

She longed to stand and walk over to him, run a hand across his shoulders and over his neck. To stroke the nape just below his hair until he relaxed under her fingertips. But while they had grown closer these last few weeks, to the point where she would easily call him her best friend, they hadn't quite reached a point where she could touch him like that. It was a little too… intimate.

The part of themselves that they were holding back from each other had translated into other areas of their rela-friendship. She wasn't ready to use the r word yet.

He was so still that she almost didn't notice when he began to move, hanging the police issue jacket he had been clutching in one hand on a hook inside the locker. He took out his coat.

"Where are we going?" she asked as he pulled it on.

He turned to face her finally, his blue eyes unreadable. "We?" He turned back to pull his keys out of the windbreaker's pockets and place them in his own.

"Yes," she replied again, standing and picking up her own coat. "We. Us. You and I."

His eyes snapped back to hers. He closed them after a moment but before he did she though she saw an expression of… embarrassment cross his features. "Lindsay this isn't somethin' I want you to get involved in."

Lindsay continued putting on her coat and picked up her bag. "What happened to 'Whatever you're going though you don't have to do it alone'? Or did that only apply to my secrets, Danny?"

She stepped up to him and placed one hand on the arm that was holding the locker door open, preparing to close it. It wasn't the closest they'd been, but it felt like it.

"I'm here," she said, squeezing his arm gently. "And I'm coming with you wherever we're going."

She could feel some of the tension drain out of him as he relaxed a little. He dropped his head once in acknowledgment, then closed his locker, her hand falling back to her side. She could still see the unsettled emotion in his eyes, but it wasn't in control anymore.

"Staten Island," he said, and she nodded.

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She would have offered to drive but she had never been to Staten Island except for her trip on the ferry- and that was only to see the Statue. She hadn't even gotten off the boat until she was back in Manhattan. At least Danny seemed to have calmed down enough to drive safely.

They took the tunnel to Brooklyn, then crossed over to Staten Island via the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. Soon miles of working class suburbs stretched out before them, the houses small and uniform. The monotony was broken every now and then by an American flag hanging proudly, if limply outside a home.

They drove away from the larger roads and worked their way deeper into the suburbs. Finally Danny slowed, crawling down the street until he found a park between the many cars that lined it. He killed the engine and waited. Snow had started to fall before they left the lab and it was slowly transforming the landscape around them. Without the heater on, the cold crept in quickly.

Lindsay tilted her head to the side and watched him. She had glanced at him every so often on the way but he hadn't seemed to notice. For a moment she had wondered if he had forgotten she was even there, so focused was he on driving. Now they were here he seemed to be in no hurry to get out of the car.

His left arm was resting on the window ledge, but his right had fallen to his thigh. After another long few moments, she reached over and took it in hers, working her fingers between his and the denim of his jeans. When he looked over at her, a question in his eyes, she squeezed his hand gently. After a moment he squeezed back, and tried to smile.

Letting out a deep breath, the nervous energy filling him once more, Danny got out of the car, waiting until she closed her door to lock the doors. He joined her on the footpath and their hands connected again.

The Messer house was a short walk down the street. It could certainly do with a lick of paint but the small garden was neat and tidy, the grass just a little long. Danny opened the gate and let her go through first, closing it carefully behind them. The two squeaks as metal grinded on metal caused a brief flutter at the front window.

Danny tugged her hand away from the front door and she followed him down a narrow path between the side of the house and the tall fence. The backyard was as neat as the front, if a little sparse, and only a little bigger. The heavy grey sky and falling snow contributed to the feeling of being boxed that the tall grey fence gave.

Danny jogged up the few steps leading to a small wooden deck and the back door. He let go of her hand and knocked briefly before opening the door.

"Ma? It's Danny," he called out. After a moment he stepped in, holding the door open for her to pass him.

The kitchen continued the theme from outside. It was small and scrupulously clean but also a little ugly and a touch cluttered. The benches that circled the walls were an eighties pale green, the wood of the cabinets too dark to match. A few feet past the cream coloured fridge was a small eating area with a round table covered with a floral cloth. The linoleum floor was faded and a little cracked at the edges.

"Ma?" Danny called again, closing the door behind them. The kitchen grew darker, the only light from a window above the sink, looking out to the side fence only a few feet away.

Lindsay picked up the faint noise of running water. "Hey, do you hear that?"

Danny turned to one of the two doorways leading to the rest of the house- the only one with the door firmly shut. He walked over and knocked on the door. "Ma? You in there?"

There was no response. He exchanged a brief look with Lindsay and she moved next to him. Danny tried the doorknob. It moved in his hand and he pushed the door open.

Inside the small room a middle-aged woman looked up from the sink that was still filling with water. The cloth she was holding to her head didn't quite cover the blood dripping down her face. Or the purple bruising around her right eye.

For a moment they all just stared at each other. Then Danny spoke. "Christ, mammy. What's goin' on?"

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I finally got around a little writer's block I've been having, so I decided to celebrate. Expect an update Friday at the latest. Right now, looks like there'll be seven chapters.


	3. Chapter 3

Eleena Messer sat at the kitchen table, still holding the cloth to her forehead. After she managed to wipe off the worst of the blood, Danny had pulled her out of the bathroom and forced her to sit at the table. She had tried to stop him pealing back the cloth to check the wound, claiming that it was just an accident, that it wasn't serious. He just looked at her until she relented. Thankfully, it really didn't seem too serious- and besides, she pointed out, head wounds always bleed a lot.

Danny let his mother press the cloth back to her forehead and turned to pace the kitchen. Lindsay was still standing by the bathroom door, not quite sure where she fit in this picture. Neither of the Messers were paying any attention to her.

Finally Danny stopped, turning around to lean against the wall, leaning forward a little to rest his hands on his thighs. "It was dad, wasn't it?"

He shook his head and barked out a sarcastic laugh. "I should've seen it. Since he lost his job things've been strange round here. Like this is a picture of a home but not a home. I should've guessed somethin' was up. He was always watchin' tv in the back room when I came over. When he did show he was mean. I thought he was just havin' trouble adjustin'. Then after Louie…"

He paused, pushing his glasses up to rub his eyes. "After Louie he was always drunk when I was here. But you put such a good show on, I let it slide. Nothin' unusual was it? Nothin' I hadn't seen after he and his buddies got busted for stealing tools and lumber when I was ten, or when he and Louie got caught with that hot gear just after I graduated from the academy.

"I guess I preferred him not bein' here when I was around. But this?…"

Lindsay had been watching both of them as Danny was talking. After a while, she realised his mother's arm was shaking as she held the cloth to her forehead. As Danny looked up again, saying, "Where is he?" like all he wanted to do was put him in the ground with Louie, she stepped forward.

Sitting down next to Danny's mother, she held a hand to the cloth, relieving the strain on her arm. The other woman's eyes flicked to her in surprise but let go. Danny grew silent behind them.

"Hi, Mrs. Messer, I'm Lindsay. I'm a friend of Danny's. Are you still feeling okay?"

The other woman looked back at her with dark eyes that, except for the shade, were so much like Danny's. Up close Lindsay could see the lines on her face and the grey beginning to show in her roots. Danny looked a lot like his mother.

"Just a little faint," she replied in the same accent Lindsay heard every day from Danny. "I'm feeling better now."

Lindsay smiled. "Okay, you just sit there and take deep breaths. I'll look after this." She looked over her shoulder. "Danny could you get your mother a glass of water?" She has asked, half ordered.

Danny still looked a little out of it, so she raised her voice a little to get his attention. He turned away to grab a glass out of a cupboard by the sink. When Lindsay tuned back to her temporary patient, older woman was huffing. It took Lindsay a moment to realise she was attempting to laugh but she didn't have the strength.

"I think I'm going to like you," she said after a moment. Lindsay didn't quite know what to say to that so she said nothing.

When Danny placed the glass down in front of his mother the force caused a good portion of it to spill out. Lindsay looked up at him but his eyes skittered away. Eleena smiled and drank the water carefully, her hands still a little unsteady.

Danny walked around the table and settled into a chair across from his mother. He looked a little calmer again. Less distraught but just as determined. "Where is he, ma?"

She shook her head. "He doesn't tell me where he goes. Not any more."

Lindsay checked the bleeding again. It appeared to be stopping. Covering it up again she smiled reassuringly as the older woman. She could hear the defeat in her voice. She was all too familiar with the way it sounded.

"That cut only happened a little while ago. He was here what? Five, ten minutes before we arrived? What if it was somethin' more serious this time? What if Detective Carols hadn't overheard a patrol officer talking about the third call out to the Messer residence in a month, oh and hey, isn't their son a cop?"

"You don't understand, boy," his mother replied. She jutted her chin out in defiance and Lindsay looked over at him.

"No I don't, ma." His head dropped to his hands. "I understand that black eye you got goin' there is at least a day or two old. But I don't understand why you were still here when he hit you again. I don't understand why he wasn't out on his ear the next day. God, ma, you taught me there is never any excuse to hit a woman."

His voice was nearly breaking with the tears he refused to shed. Underneath his hands Lindsay could see his eyes were shut tight. He was radiating pain now, and she wasn't quite sure what to do. Would he want her comfort, or would he shun it?

Eleena's hand shook as she took another drink and Lindsay automatically placed a hand at the bottom of the glass. When the older woman had finished drinking she took the glass from her and set it back down on the table.

Then she reached out to Danny. Dropping her hand under the table she stretched out her hand and rested her fingertips on his knee. When she looked back at him he dropped his hands from his face. One came to rest in a fist on the table. The other dropped below it. He grabbed hold of her fingers and squeezed.

Lindsay knew the action did not go unnoticed by the woman beside her. For all of her current problems- though she certainly seemed to be regaining her colour- Danny's mother didn't look like a woman who let much get past her.

Lindsay pulled back the cloth from the wound. "The bleeding's stopped," she told them both. She squeezed Danny's hand. "Where's the first aid kit?"

He looked at her and nodded, letting go of her hand to retrieve the small plastic box from the bathroom. A very basic kit, it only contained some antiseptic, a box of bandaids, a few flat tongue depressors, a sling and a bandage. Lindsay unwrapped three of the bandaids and poured some of the antiseptic on a clean bit of the cloth.

"This will sting," she warned, but the older woman still hissed when the cloth came in contact with the wound. Lindsay tried to smile reassuringly.

The cut was quite close to the hairline so the bandaids were a little tricky to apply at first. When she was finished, Lindsay put the rubbish in the bin and returned the first aid kit to underneath the counter in the bathroom. She was scrubbing her hands when she looked up to she Danny pulling down the shoulder of his mothers shirt, revealing large purple blotches.

"Oh, ma." Danny let go of the shirt and sat down in the chair Lindsay had just vacated.

"I was on a case when Detective Carols called, ma," he said quietly. Lindsay wiped her hands and paused in the doorway between the two rooms. "We found a woman in an ally way. She had a black eye, some pretty nasty bruising. Bruising like you get when someone bigger than you grabs you and holds on tight. Like if he's shakin' you. Thing is ma, she was also dead. Probably because some bastard finally put her out of her misery after beatin' on her for years."

His mother adjusted her shirt. "Your father wouldn't do that, boy."

"No, you see ma," he looked up at her. "He could. If you don't let me help… I could lose you too."

She turned her head away from him. "You don't just leave after thirty seven years of marriage, Danny. Maybe you'll understand one day, but after all of that, together, you don't just walk out the door."

"Not even when he's a drunk who likes doin' that to ya for fun?" he asked, his voice rising with incredulity.

"He's still my husband, Danny. He's still your father."

"You think I don't remember that every day when I look at myself in the mirror? That's his blood in my veins." He laid his wrists on the table for a moment.

She looked back and reached over to him. "My blood too."

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I just found out that nineteen people get sent an email when I update this story. Hot Damn! Now if a few of you would sling a little constructive criticism my way, that would be great.  
Now you know what happened with Danny's mother, but that is not the end of the story. It has to get worse before it will get better folks. And it will- a lot better.


	4. Chapter 4

They ended up in his old bedroom. Faded posters of 80's and 90's baseball stars were still hung on the cream walls, matching the small dark green bookshelf filled with baseball memorabilia and some pretty impressive trophies. The plain single bed was covered in a pale blue throw. A time warp for Daddy, standing awkwardly just inside the doorway.

Lindsay walked over to the bookcase and picked one of the trophies up. "Most Valuable Player, 1981." She looked up at Danny. "You were what? Six?"

"Yeah," he said, rubbing the back of his head. "Damn, I didn't even know she still had these here." He walked over to join her. One of the other figurines caught his eye. It was placed right at the front of the display, despite the somewhat lesser value. "Huh." He picked up another trophy, the figurine on top a batsman poised mid swing. It was small enough to fit comfortably into the palm of his hand.

"Most improved '83," he read aloud. "I was eight but they had me playin' in the under twelve's. The rest of them were all ten, eleven, towerin' over me. Would've been MVP, 'cept they thought it would knock a few noses out of joint." He sat down on the side of the bed, still holding the trophy in his hands. It was hardly the most important award he'd ever won- there were much larger ones in the collection. But this was the one his ma had put at the front.

"God, that was…" he blew out a breath. "A lifetime ago."

The bed shifted as Lindsay sat down beside him, a good bit of space separating them. "Danny," she said quietly, studying her hands in her lap. "I'm sorry, if you were... embarrassed or ashamed because I'm here. Seeing all of that. Maybe I should just…"

"No," he said before he'd even thought about it.

He looked at her. The soft light from the window at the foot of the bed was shining all around her. Danny had only a little poetry in his soul, but even he recognised that moment, and recognised that he lacked the words to describe it. Maybe one day he would be able to express just how… unreal she looked. And yet every moment of the time in this room was achingly real.

"I hate you had to see it, Montana," he said after a moment. "I hate _it_. But…" He couldn't find the words to say he wanted her here.

She her eyes were serious when she looked up at him. "Both of us have pasts we hate, Danny."

Her words hung in the air between them. Suddenly she had taken the line she had drawn in the ground at the beginning of this… whatever they were doing, and she had stepped right over it. Danny felt his breath catch in his throat.

He looked at her for a long moment, studying those serious brown eyes. "I got a criminal record."

She raised her eyebrows, surprise evident. He bet that was the last thing she was expecting him to say. "What?"

"Yeah, well," he said, attempting to laugh. Anything to release this tension, to go back, to go forward… Danny was way out of his comfort zone. He turned to put the trophy back on the bookcase and went back to staring at the open doorway in front of him. "I was fifteen when that… whole thing went down with Louie. Pretty much straightened me out. But before that…"

"When I was twelve I got pulled in for shopliftin'. Me, couple of buddies, decided it would be a good idea to go over to the mall, have a bit of fun. Idiots," he shook his head. "Security must've seen us coming a mile off. They were just waiting for us, right outside. I got busted with three chocolate bars and a cheap pearl necklace I thought my ma would like.

"Course, Louie was sixteen by then, and he and Sonny were already tight. So me bein' a Messer didn't do me any favours. I think maybe they were just after me, just waiting for me to mess up too, and all the others got busted for being with me. I got a caution, but they bought my ma down to the station to pick me up. She lay into me like… well I got the message. For a while."

He looked up to find her biting her lip to prevent a smile. It made him smile back. "Yeah, well…." He drifted off. She'd stop smiling soon. "When I was fourteen both Louie and dad were sent to jail the same year. Louie, he was eighteen by then, so they tried him as an adult and he got six months. Dad was gone most of that year.

"I got into trouble big time." He blew out a breath. "I got into a fight with another kid. He'd been disrespectin' my ma, tauntin' me 'bout my dad. Kid stuff, right? But somehow I walked away with a split lip and he ended up in the hospital. I got arrested again, spent some time in juvie. Met a guy in there, and after a while he started talkin' bout how when he got out he was gonna do something. Somethin' that would make a name for himself."

He stopped suddenly. Looking up at the hallway. "For about a month all three of us was in jail or juvie at the same time. God, I don't know how my ma coped that year. She really tried with me when I got out, but I was set. I wasn't goin' anywhere, anyway. School was borin' and what else did I have to do? So when that kid rocked up in a car with his older brother I tagged along.

"They knocked over a convenience store. The brother, he had a gun that we didn't know about. Scared the shit out of me, and I legged it. He put the guy at the counter in the ground, and he and his brother got put away again."

Normally when he was anxious or worried Danny found himself moving, jumping around, as if he needed to expel all of that nervous energy. But this time he stayed absolutely still. Waiting for her reaction. He expected her to move- probably away from him- but she stayed right where she was. He watched her out of the corner of his eyes as he continued.

"I waited for weeks, every moment thinkin' there was gonna be a policeman at the door or draggin' me out of school. I was on my best behaviour, started studyin', got good grades. That thing with Louie. He was out of jail, and when he asked if I wanted to go for a ride, I couldn't say no. I mean it's my brother, and I hadn't seen much of him around 'cause ma kicked him out sometime that year. I guess after that happened I was finished with the whole thing. I still wanted off the island, but I sure wasn't goin' to do it by going to Rikers.

"My science teacher, he did good by me. He gave me extra tutoring after school, and then, when I was eighteen he stood up for me in court to get my record expunged. Guess I thought I owed him, so I started a science degree at college. But it was the science that could tell you who committed a crime that really got my attention. So when I graduated I went to the academy.

"And here I am, a cop."

He turned to look at her fully and she responded in kind. "That's my past, Lindsay. If Louie hadn't stepped in- if Mr Harrison hadn't stood up for me, if my ma hadn't been there for me every step of the way, I would have been someone you would be arrestin'."

She was the first who knew the whole story. Flack knew bits and pieces, and Mac knew about his record. Lindsay was the only one who knew about that night at the convenience store. And it wasn't just that he was telling her his past to get her to open up to him. He wanted her to know everything. The way he wanted to know everything about her.

In the last few weeks of drinks after work, take out Chinese in the break room, and the occasional sight seeing tour, they had talked. He knew about her dating tragedies, the oddest cases she had found in those Montana mountains, her experiences of New York. He told her about his friendships with Flack and Aiden, his relationship with Louie, and how much they all meant to him. About meeting Mac and Stella- already a formidable team- for the first time. About his city.

There were still a million little things he hadn't told her. He wanted her to know it all. And the idea of that should have been scarier than it was.

He looked down when he felt her hand slip around his. "I don't think you give yourself enough credit, Danny," she said.

She squeezed his hand and he squeezed hers back. He nodded at her and smiled. She looked away.

"I guess, I need to tell you something."

He was shaking his head before she could finish. "You don't have too…"

"No, but I want to," she said, meeting his eyes. "I need to tell you, because it's important. And besides, I started this."

She turned to stare, like he was before, at the open doorway. He watched her as she spoke.

--------------------------

I'm going on holiday next week, so I've had to move the posting schedule up. I'm pretty sure none of you will be complaining about that though. Expect a little romance on Valentines day.


	5. Chapter 5

"When I was seventeen I was living on a ranch outside of a small country town near Bozeman. So yeah, Messer, I really am a country girl. It was so quiet out there. Just you and the mountains. There was none of this noise you get here. Just the animals and the occasional human voice.

"I was such a daddies girl. I loved spending the day with him, just following him around as he worked. I was never really into faming, but I loved it when we worked on the machinery or the fencing. And it got me out of the house and away…

She cleared her throat. "I loved seeing how things worked and I already knew I was going to major in science in college. Maybe get a teaching diploma. But my mum… We never got on. Right from when I was little she seemed to want to… fit me into a mould of the daughter she wanted, but that just wasn't me. We argued like nothing else- even when I was eight we… it was never right between us.

"My younger sister, Annie, she was the good one, and I was always the troublemaker. Sometimes I felt that my mother didn't even _like _me, and I always felt she loved me out of duty, because she gave birth to me. She just... wasn't cut out to have children. She treated both of us like that but Annie was always trying to please- she always did exactly what mum wanted…

"But…" she trailed off again. After a moment she turned back to him. "I'm rambling because I don't exactly know how to tell you this bit," she admitted. "So I'm just going to say it straight." He squeezed the hand he was still holding in his own. Their joined hands were resting on the bed between them.

"There was a party I wanted to go to, and for once mum said I could go. It was meant to be at my best friend Laurie's house so Annie was going to come too… thank god she didn't. I guess mum thought I was going to corrupt her or something. Anyway, me, Laurie, her older sister Jane, her brother Grant, and his friend Steven all ended up belting down the back roads on our way back to her place sometime real late at night. It was the 24th of June, 1995.

"There was a car up ahead, just off the side of the road, three guys hanging around. They waved us down so we stopped." She shivered and Danny let go of her hand, scooting over and wrapping his arm around her shoulders instead. She rested her head on his shoulder, and her voice dropped until she was whispering.

"Said they needed help so the boys got out of the car and walked over. Next thing we knew there was these loud bangs and they just fell over, blood everywhere. First time I'd seen that kind of blood." God, he thought, pulling her closer still. Just seventeen.

"The three of us just sat there in shock. I think Jane tried to start the engine but they came over with shotguns and ordered us out of the car. They were sizing us up, and I guess they decided that Jane was the prettiest, so two of them took her off the side of the road. I could hear her screaming…"

His shirt was getting damp with her tears. He couldn't pull her in any closer, so he wrapped both of his arms around her. She grabbed onto him, clutching handfuls of his sweater in her hands. "They shot her when they were done and me and Laurie knew we were next. I could hear them laughing. It still makes me sick.

"Then they came for us. One of them grabbed Laurie and she went crazy, yelling and trying to fight him. I tried to grab the gun off another one… That's the last thing I remember. I woke up in the hospital and my mum and dad were sitting beside my bed. It took a while, but eventually they told me I was the only one who survived. The truth is, no one knows why I lived and Laurie died. We both got shot. I lived. She didn't."

Danny felt prickle between his shoulder blades and shrugged, trying to ignore it. Trying to ignore the 50/50 chance that she wouldn't be here.

"They caught two of the guys who did it, and the CSI's handling the case made sure they went away for life. But one of them… They didn't catch him 'till he rapped a girl in Seattle last year and they matched the DNA. I got the phone call from the Bozeman prosecutor just before the Holly case. At first I was so relieved. Ecstatic. Did a crazy thing to prove I was alive and free. But since then, I've been getting these flashbacks…"

Lindsay blinked, like she was waking up, coming out of a dream. She looked up at him and he released his hold on her a little. "I wanted to tell you. But I didn't. I didn't know what would happen if you knew."

"What would happen?" he asked her, looking down into her eyes.

She searched his eyes for a long moment before dropping her gaze to her hands, still holding his shirt. She let go and concentrated on smoothing out the material. "I guess I though I would see pity there. But I don't. You're angry."

"Damn right," he said.

"That's…" she smiled at him shakily. She drew in a breath. "I saw enough pity back home. After- after it happened, mom thought I would settle down, like I'd learned my lesson. Dad never let me out of his sight. I had to go to school, come straight home and never go out unless I was with him or my mother. And you can imagine what happened if a guy tried to talk to me.

"It made me into someone I hated. I was so angry with both of them. I just wanted to live, and I did some pretty stupid things behind their backs, whenever I could get away with it. Sneaking out to meet boys, drinking, smoking pot." He saw the flicker of another smile on her lips. "But it all felt wrong. I wasn't me. It was only when I moved out the day after I turned eighteen that I felt I could really be me again.

"I had to go to college at Bozeman even though I'd been accepted elsewhere. Both of them hated it when I declared forensic science as my major- I think that was when mum gave up on me. But even living in Bozeman it was like I could feel them surrounding me, smothering me with their concern. I did well in my job. Worked hard. I found my own place, lived on my own. But I didn't belong there anymore."

"So you applied for the transfer here," he said

"Dad stopped talking to me. He was so scared of losing me I guess he just cut me off. Mom thought I was going to be even further corrupted living all alone in the big city," she smiled when she heard him chuckle. "I told her she already had one perfect daughter, so why did she need two? Besides, just before I left Laurie's mom committed suicide, and I had to process the scene. She'd lost her whole family that night. I had to get away from all of that."

Danny couldn't help himself- he turned his head just slightly and rested it on top of her brown curls. He fingers were still resting on his chest and it made him feel… It made him feel something. "What happened to your sister?"

"She did what mom wanted. Dropped out of college after her first year to get married to a final year law student. Settled down in a nice house and started popping out the grandkids. She's eight months pregnant with the fourth. I call her sometimes, but we don't say much. She sent me pictures of her eldest when she started school."

"So you're the cool aunt who gets to spoil them from afar?"

"Pretty much," she said and he could tell she was smiling. He let go- for the moment at least, the angry feelings her story had instilled in him. "Though it's going to stretch the budget a little with four to buy for. I don't know what she's thinking having that many."

Danny grinned. "Hey, it's nearly a team," he protested.

She turned around and raised an eyebrow. "Well my limit is three," she said.

They both looked at each other for a moment as the exact content of the conversation dawned on them. Danny cleared his throat and rearrange his glassed as she flushed bright red and pulled her hands away from his chest like she'd been burned. He sort of missed them. His arm was still wrapped around her shoulders but they mutually widened the small space between them. The subject was officially dropped.

Odd, had any of his previous girlfriends mentioned children he would have been out the door in a flash. But Lindsay… he knew her. She thought about everything, and occasionally talked before she thought through what she was going to say. It made him wonder if he'd been a jerk to a lot of women over the years, intent on keeping his independence- and macho pride- intact.

After staring at the doorway for a moment, he realised he could hear his mother down the hall in the kitchen, chopping something on that old wooden board she used. It was strange to be aware of it now, even though he was pretty sure she's been moving around in there the whole time he and Lindsay had been in his old room. It was almost like- like they weren't in their own little space anymore.

"I'm sorry that it happened to you, Linds," he said eventually. "I wish it hadn't."

She was quiet for a while and he began to wonder if she'd heard him, or was going to acknowledge what he'd said at all. "I…" she paused again. "I guess I used to think it ruined my life. But it didn't. I like the way my life is now."

His arm was still resting across her shoulders and he tugged her a little closer. "I'm glad you got that transfer," he said, and hoped she understood the rest of the sentence that he couldn't say. She was just so strong and beautiful and... human.

She looked back at him and their eyes met. "So am I."

He could suddenly hear his heart pounding in his ears as his eyes traced her face. She bit her lip, but kept those beautiful brown eyes on his. They nudged nearer to each other, and he shifted his hand to cradle the back of her head, threading his fingers through her hair. He pulled her closer and one of her hands touched his chest. His muscles contracted at the contact, and she let a small giggle escape.

Danny had been waiting for the right moment, and he guessed this was it.

He grinned and pulled her the last few inches, his lips meeting hers. Her eyelids fluttered closed, and after a moment so did his.

--------------------------------

It's not over yet folks- next chapter, Dad comes home.

I'm really not sure about the last bit- it's always hard, as a woman, to write romance from a man's point of view. I got it looked over by a guy at work, but he's gay so... oh well. Happy belated Valentines Day to the Aussies and happy early Valentines Day to the yanks. The rest of you fit somewhere in there. Hope you had/ have a great day!


	6. Chapter 6

Some time later Danny leaned on the door frame between the hall and the kitchen, watching his mother cook. She seemed to have recovered from earlier, but he couldn't help but focus on the bandaids that covered one temple and the bruising around her right eye, still evident despite a fresh layer of concealer.

She looked up at him. "Hey. Are you two going to stay for dinner?"

Danny looked around as Lindsay joined him. "What do you say? Want a home cooked meal, Montana?"

She smiled at him, a secret in her eyes, and he smiled back in the same way. "Yeah, that sounds great," she said to him, then walked further into the kitchen, studying the food preparation as if to figure out what they were eating. "Thank you for inviting me, Mrs Messer."

The older woman smiled. "Stop calling me that, makes me feel old. Call me Eleena." She looked past Lindsay to where Danny was still standing by the door. "I like her," she decided. "She's polite."

Danny chuckled. "You should see her run down a suspect twice her size."

Lindsay smiled and playfully waked him in the arm. For a moment Danny felt almost perfect. He watched as Lindsay insisted on helping his mother with the cooking, dragging him in to stir the pot of home made tomato sauce. They were both watching his mother carefully but he relaxed as she showed no sign of unsteadiness or faintness.

At first he dismissed the faint squeak he heard from somewhere outside. It was getting dark now, the people of the neighbourhood were turning on lights, making dinner. Others were coming home from work and greeting their loved ones.

Then he heard the footsteps coming up the side of the house. He felt himself grow agitated again. "Ma, you expecting anyone?" he asked.

He interrupted the conversation she'd been having with Lindsay and both of them looked at him. He could as the implications of his question registered, and his mother's eyes grew wider. Lindsay's went serious again. A loud thumping signalled someone coming up the back steps, then walking across the deck. The security light at the back door snapped on.

On instinct Danny reached out for Lindsay and pulled her behind him as the door opened.

Danny looked at his father for the first time since Louie's wake. He seemed to have aged, his dark hair more grey than black now, the lines on his face deeper, his cheeks sunken. He filled the doorway- his height something both of his sons had inherited. He slouched against the frame in the same way his oldest boy used to.

George Messer stopped just inside the doorway, registering who was in the kitchen in front of him. Danny watched as his eyes flickers over his wife, those pale bandaids standing out against her skin, to him still standing at the oven and the past him to Lindsay. Danny was still holding on to her forearm, but he felt her loosen his grip and take his hand instead.

They all stood in silence for a moment as Danny felt the anger snap in him, trying to get out. He gripped Lindsay's hand harder.

"You come over for dinner, boy?" the man at the door asked eventually. His speech was as gruff as always but Danny couldn't hear any drunken slurring in his words.

"No." he replied. "Detective Carols called me."

"Hah!" the older man barked out. "What did that old bastard want. I ain't got any warrants." He slouched into the room, moving over to the fridge and opening it, pulling out a beer. Danny shifted to make sure Lindsay was still behind him. He looked down and discovered his other hand was fisted by his side.

"He called because cops have been here three times in a month."

He watched his father for any reaction, but he seemed to just shake the implication off. "Humph," he said, twisting the cap off the bottle and swallowing good third of the bottle in one go. "That ol' busy body next door. Would be better off keeping her mouth shut."

Danny took a half step forward, dropping Lindsay's hand. "Keep her mouth shut about what, dad?" he asked, his voice low and hard. "About what gave ma that black eye?"

The older man leaned back against the counter, swallowing more of the beer. He glanced over at his wife and Danny saw the way she shrank into herself. Then he looked back at his son. "None of your business boy."

Before he knew what he was doing, Danny had crossed the small room and was in his father's face. "She's my mother, that makes it my business," he said, his voice rising.

From behind, the women spoke. "Danny," they said in near perfect unison, then fell silent.

"Ha," George laughed. "You should listen to them, Danny boy. Wouldn't want you getting into trouble," he said sarcastically.

Danny sneered, shaking his head. Then he grabbed his father by the front of his shirt, hauling him to the door. He heard a sharp "Danny!" from behind him, his mother this time.

"Don't worry, ma," he said loudly, yanking open the back door and nearly throwing his father out onto the deck. "I won't hurt him." He slammed the door shut in their faces and turned back to the man in front of him.

George Messer had tripped on the door jam and fallen on his face. He was now struggling to his feet. Danny gripped the back of his shirt and hauled him down off the deck, towards the back of the yard and away from the artificial light. It was easier than he expected. His father was either too slow or too hungover to fight him. He'd lost weight too.

He finally came to life when Danny stopped, shaking off his hand. "What do you think you're doing boy?" he asked, spitting onto the snow covered ground.

Danny shivered a little. He had left his coat in doors, and there was no way he was going back to get it. The snow was still falling softly, and flakes were already melting in his hair. Darkness was falling, but thanks to the light on the deck, it was still just light enough to see. He stepped away from his father, but kept his eyes on the man who had given him DNA but not a childhood.

"Right now, I'm thinkin' about laying you out, but I kinda like my job, so I guess you're safe from me in that respect, pa." His hands were still tight fists by his side.

"It's none of your business, boy," the older man repeated. "It's between me and your ma, and you got no right interfearin'."

Danny shoved the older man up against the fence, the thwack of a soft body on wood just a little unsatisfying. "How about this, _dad_," he enjoined sarcastically. "I could arrest you right here for doin' that to her. We got plenty of evidence. How would you like to go back in for another three to five?"

His father tried to sneer again, but this time Danny saw the fear lurking behind his bravado. "That's right," he said. "You're still playin' at bein' a cop ain't ya boy? Do they know all those things you've done?"

Danny ignored him. "But for some god dammed reason, she won't let me," he continued. "You lucky old bastard. She told me she didn't want you in jail again."

George laughed. "So what are you goin' to do, boy? Can't hurt me, can't arrest me."

He started to move away and Danny shoved him back into the fence, harder this time, and his head snapped back to connect with the palings. "Listen to me, you old bastard, and listen good. You ever lay a hand on that woman again, and you'll be back inside before you can blink. And I'll make sure the charges stick, whether she'll testify or not.

"You'd be amazed at what I can do, working this side of the system, pa. You never know, someone might even hear somethin' about you havin' a preference for little girls. Do you know how long child abusers stay alive in general population dad?"

"I never touched a kid in my life," his father spat.

Danny looked into the blue eyes he had inherited, and gloried in the fear there. The security light snapped off once again, plunging them into shadows. "Doesn't matter. They'd still make what was rest of your life a livin' hell."

Satisfied that he'd gotten the point, Danny turned to walk back to the house. His father's voice stopped him.

"That girl in there, she know you killed your brother?"

Danny turned back and slammed his fist into the fence, barely an inch from the old man's face. He leaned in, close to his father's ear. "You don't get to talk about her," he said harshly, but quietly. "Sonny Sassone killed Louie, and yeah," he smiled. "She knows everythin'."

He turned his back once more and walked back to the door, leaving his father in the snow. Opening it, he found his mother and Lindsay sitting at the table. "Sorry, ma," he said, walking to the room and getting his coat from where it lay over one of the chairs. "We gotta go. I'll see you soon, okay?" He leaned forward and kissed his mother on the top of her head.

He looked up and his eyes met Lindsay's. He saw worry there, and caution. "You okay to go?"

She nodded and stood to collect her own coat and bag. "Goodbye, Eleena," she said, smiling tightly.

"Goodbye Lindsay," his mother replied. "Maybe I'll see you some other time. Under better circumstances."

Lindsay looked over at him, then smiled at his mother again and followed him out of the house.

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I'm really proud of this chapter. It took me forever to get going, but when I came to rewriting it, it was already perfect.

Only one chapter left. For all of you who have been wondering what's been going on in Lindsay's head this whole time, you're about to find out. Oh, and Hawkes gets a date. Expect it late Sunday (Australian EST) because I am getting on a plane very early Monday morning!


	7. Chapter 7

Sheldon Hawkes lead the owner of the pizzeria- Krista Mathers' husband- into the interogation room and nodded to Flack and Stella as they entered. They had all the evidence they needed against him- including a long list of police call outs to their home, and Krista's hospital admissions records. What really nailed him was the fingerprint made in her blood that Stella found just inside the kitchen of the small store.

Still, a confession would tie the case up nicely, and Hawkes left them too it. He had someone to find.

Stepping into the bullpen, he searched the mass confusion of cops, victims and suspects for a familiar face. He saw her across the other side of the room, walking out the door with her partner. He walked over quickly to catch up. "Hey, Officer, Rodriguez!" he called out as he walked out into the corridor. She and her partner turned. "Can I have a word with you?"

She turned and said something to her partner, who continued down the corridor. She then retraced her steps, her hands resting on her equipment belt and a question in her eyes.

"Yeah?" she asked.

He moved them a few steps further down the corridor, out of the way of people coming in and out of the door. "I just wanted to thank you for your help today with Danny, Rebecca," he said, placing an emphasis on her name.

She smiled. "I was beginning to think you'd forgotten me," she said.

He shook his head. "I couldn't forget you," he replied sincerely. "You helped keep me sane in there." Like he was going to forget the woman who had delivered him a coffee while he was shut up in an interrogation room under arrest for murder. Who had then told him in no uncertain terms to stop sulking. They'd talked for nearly fifteen minutes.

Yeah, he remembered the petite Latina with caramel coloured eyes.

"So, I was wondering… A bunch of us are going to see a game on Saturday, and I got an extra ticket. Wanna come?"

She raised an eyebrow but smiled. "I'm on the late shift, but yeah, that sounds like fun." She pulled a small marker pen out of her pocket and grabbed his wrist. She wrote a phone number down the inside of his forearm. "Now you can call me."

Hawkes grinned. "I'll be doing that."

"Okay then," she turned to follow her partner. "See you later CSI Hawkes."

--------------------------

Lindsay watched Danny carefully as he sat on the edge of her bathtub in the closet sized space she called her bathroom. Thankfully the woman she shared the apartment with- a nurse at one of the local hospitals- wasn't home to see them come in, Danny still radiating anger but lost in his own sorrow. She was pretty sure he'd driven them there entirely on automatic pilot.

She sat on the laundry basket and cradled his hand on her lap, pulling out as many splinters as she could find. "There," she said quietly. "I think that's the last of them."

She put the tweezers back on the small cabinet, crowed with various feminine products. If Danny was thinking clearly they both would have been embarrassed that he was there. Or rather he would be embarrassed, and she would mirror the feeling to get him to tease her. Then he would be able to relax.

She rubbed her thumb over the back of his hand and waited him out. It seemed like a week had passed since she got that phone call from Stella. A weeks worth of talking, and making the transition between friends… and something more. Night had fallen outside the small window, and she could hear the traffic, the noise of many people living on top of each other. But here in this little room, she and Danny were once more in their own little space. They were safe.

Even before everything changed between them, she had walked into the lab with a bounce in her step and a half-formed idea of seeing him in her mind. She longed for cases together where they could bicker over the body, or even moments in their shared office when he would look over at her and smile. And when he smiled and licked his lips she felt her heart quiver, just a little. One day she had caught herself idly wondering what it would be like to kiss him and had realized something was going on.

She had been attracted to him not only because he was insanely good looking, but because he never let her win at anything, and because she could see how much he cared about what he was doing. She would've bet it meant as much to him as it did to her. Now she knew exactly how much it meant to him. A purpose. Salvation. A way of making amends.

And knowing that had helped her make that final step towards trusting him with the knowledge of her past. He may have done some stupid things when he was a kid, but then, so had she. And he had grown into a good man. A man she cared a little more about each day.

"I didn't hit him, Linds," he said quietly, out of nowhere.

She shook her head gently but knew that she couldn't see it from his hunched position. "I know," she said.

She looked back down at his hand and found herself admiring his long fingers. He talked with his hands- she had often watched him waving them around as he tried to communicate with someone. To see them so quiet was almost unnatural.

"I nearly did," he admitted. Then, after a moment, "I don't like myself… like that."

She sighed sadly, an ache for him in her chest. Her heart had done more than a little fluttering in the past few hours. With fear, with worry, with sadness, with an all encompassing joy when he had kissed her. It was somehow right that they find each other with honest hearts, broken dreams on the floor around them.

She had waited with Eleena in the kitchen in a tense silence. They hadn't spoken much, but Lindsay had decided that everything Danny had said about his mother was true. She was the kind of woman who could keep a tearaway teenager in line, mostly, and still be able to threaten him with a clip around his ear after his thirtieth birthday. The kind of mother Lindsay had wanted all of her life.

"Your mom with be fine, Danny."

He looked up, finally, anger written across his features. "How could she let that happen? How could she… Why did she stay?"

Lindsay shrugged helplessly. "I think at some point she made a choice between keeping what was left of her family whole, or tearing it apart."

He scowled. "That's bullshit."

"Yeah," she agreed. "But understandable."

His eyes met hers. "Lindsay, would you stay?" he asked seriously.

"I don't know," she replied. "I honestly don't know Danny. If I loved someone… if I had spent a lifetime with them, through all of the ups and downs..." she trailed off.

He jerked like he wanted to stand and start pacing around the small room. But he left his hand in hers and stayed seated. "No," he said forcefully. "I have that in me Montana. One day it might come out. I don't know if I can control it." His voice cracked on his last words.

Lindsay grimaced, tears in her own eyes. "Danny, I know you. You would never do that, whatever the provocation." When he shook his head, she rubbed her fingers over his knuckles and then reached out to place her hand on the side of his face. He looked at her with blank eyes.

"You were wondering, back at the house, why your mother put that small statue at the front. I could see it in your eyes," she told him. "I know why. It was because she knew then what kind of man you were going to be. Someone who would never give up, even against overwhelming odds."

He blinked, frowning. He covered his eyes with one hand, pulling off his glasses. "She's so proud of you," Lindsay said, and watched the first tear fall from his eyes. Then he sagged towards her and she pulled him to her, wrapping her arms around his shaking shoulders.

-------------------------

She made him dinner and they sat at her small kitchen table to eat it. Lindsay carried the bulk of the conversation, and rejoiced when she managed to make him smile a little. Eventually she handed him his coat and they stood at her front door.

"Oh, hey," he said, remembering. "Flack said to remind you about the game on Saturday."

She nodded, their closeness causing her to worry her bottom lip with her teeth, a little nervous still. And because he could, he kissed her. He pulled away a moment later.

"I'll see you at work," he said, somehow grinning. His heart lightened.

She smiled and kissed him again, pulling him close. It was some time later before he actually left her apartment.

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Well that's it. But don't worry! There are plenty more stories left in the series. I promised four weddings and two funerals, didn't I?

Anyone want to go see a game? I know I do…


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